WE CHAT WITH JOHNNY KNOXVILLE

Hold onto your helmets, folks! We caught up with a tartan-sporting, beer-holding Johnny Knoxville on the red carpet in Sydney at the Australian premiere of Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa this week. Yes, really.

The movie, which has already grossed over $60 million at the US box office, chronicles the (mis)adventures of Knoxville who plays 86-year-old Irving Zisman, the film’s titular character, as he drives across middle America, punking and filming strangers for (extremely well) hidden camera gags.

But it wasn’t his grandpa that inspired him to make the latest Jackass spin-off.

“My father was a big inspiration, [he] embarrassed me all the time. He had a tyre company and would make laxative milkshakes for his staff. He was gnarly – he went for it. He was very funny,” said Knoxville.

But how, after three Jackass features and the famed TV series, do him and the oft-injured crew keep things fresh?

“When you’re writing in a room with all your friends, if they’ve heard a joke before, they’re not going to laugh at it again! It sucks to pitch a joke in the room and have everyone go ‘Nahhh… not so good’.”

“[Though] I think the beauty pageant and the strip club are two of the best scenes we’ve ever shot over the course of Jackass,” Knoxville continued.